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vortacist's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
libraryghosts's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
edebell's review against another edition
5.0
As it offers, this book explores the blues, in particular, its connections across time. Deep, spiritual. Poetic. With metaphors and untied endings, it requests immersion. Just, lovely.
I want to address the content notes because as a person very sensitive to these, I received different accounts, and finally just decided to try it.
This collection addresses topics of brutality including slavery, abuse, oppression, child sexual assault, and self-harm. There are multiple references to skin harm and fire, and multiple references to the womb, childbirth, and child loss. There are a few graphic references across these topics, especially as the notes and heat grow toward the end.
However, it was all presented with such necessity and understanding of the trauma to the topics that I was ok to read it, at least as fine as real world events.
Given how these stories will forever change how I view the poetry and generational connection of the world in profound ways, I'm glad I did.
It is a tremendous collection.
I want to address the content notes because as a person very sensitive to these, I received different accounts, and finally just decided to try it.
This collection addresses topics of brutality including slavery, abuse, oppression, child sexual assault, and self-harm. There are multiple references to skin harm and fire, and multiple references to the womb, childbirth, and child loss. There are a few graphic references across these topics, especially as the notes and heat grow toward the end.
However, it was all presented with such necessity and understanding of the trauma to the topics that I was ok to read it, at least as fine as real world events.
Given how these stories will forever change how I view the poetry and generational connection of the world in profound ways, I'm glad I did.
It is a tremendous collection.
james_weakley's review against another edition
5.0
Richness, History, Depth, and Voice
The stories enclosed in this book bring to life a rich tradition of storytelling that is priceless. The author's characters speak to that history in voices that are real and known. Diving into this fiction, you'll see the nature around, feel the fires when they erupt from the book. You'll hear stories and phrases from childhood and those speakers will be familiar to you.
Excellent read!
The stories enclosed in this book bring to life a rich tradition of storytelling that is priceless. The author's characters speak to that history in voices that are real and known. Diving into this fiction, you'll see the nature around, feel the fires when they erupt from the book. You'll hear stories and phrases from childhood and those speakers will be familiar to you.
Excellent read!
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
This #ownvoices short story collection should be required reading for so many reasons, and the author deserves as wide a readership as possible. The stories incorporate an aesthetic she calls the New Weird South, which combines elements of the Old South but fuses it with aspects of the New Weird, which Jeff and Ann Vandermeer are notable for disseminating, particularly in their anthology focusing on this sub-genre. This collection is unique, full of emotion, and belongs to a class of its own. It reconciles deep trauma and scars, uses poetic and impactful language, and presents a nuanced speculative fiction collection that is of a superb quality.
penprince's review against another edition
5.0
Sheree's writing is dark but ethereal. Her language is beautiful but at times paints pictures of the horrifying. The stories in Nine Bar Blues are subtle & sublime, running deep, & rich with symbolism and imagery, they tell of black defiance, struggle, and liberation and it's all held together by some very poetic prose. It's not always an easy read because it has a lot of packed and concentrated content. And that having being said, I think I'll just go ahead and read it again, rn.
Every story had a power, but my favourites were
Head Static
The Parts That Make Us Monsters
The Dragon Can't Dance
Who Needs the Stars If The Full Moon Loves You
Shannequa's Blues or Another Shotgun Lullaby
Madame and the Map: A Journey in Five Movements
Every story had a power, but my favourites were
Head Static
The Parts That Make Us Monsters
The Dragon Can't Dance
Who Needs the Stars If The Full Moon Loves You
Shannequa's Blues or Another Shotgun Lullaby
Madame and the Map: A Journey in Five Movements
ctgt's review against another edition
5.0
When you are given Life, at some point in Time you got to live it. And Freedom is not something you find, it's something you make.
A fantastic collection of stories filled with tradition, folklore, double dutch and love.
I'm always looking for moments and these tales had plenty
How we traveled between worlds, the enslaved and the free, the whole and the broken. How we stayed in the light when so much of the world trafficked in darkness.
Down by the river, where the water is brown-black and slippery, where the cobblestones whisper with the fallen trees, the morning belongs to the open sky. The morning belongs to all of us. I know this view. You look down and everything looks possible, like the whole world is a floating barge, and all yours dreams is just drifting on a bend in the river.
But that day Madame turned them blind mole eyes toward me. I lowered my own, thinking nothing good can come when slavery see free.
"A lot of blues and jazz got plenty of tritones, this space between notes that just don't sound right. And of course, wouldn't have no blues without that blue note. Church folk used to call it the Devil's music. It's what gives the music that restless, rambling along feeling. What made it dangerous."
They like to laugh loud, open-mouthed, the kind of laughter where it's all tongue and teeth. I don't judge no more, just witness. I know now it's a kind of silent, coded language, one you won't know how to speak unless you know what it feels like to want and need to be seen.
As a child, like many girls, I used to dance in the middle of my room, until one of my sisters would walk in. Then I would stop for a moment and giggle, then begin the dance again as if no one was there. As I danced alone, I was the brightest star, the only star in my imagination.
People think because they forget their dreams, that they are gone. They are not. The body holds them, the way rich soil holds water. Dreams are hidden somewhere deep in the bones, and flesh and skin.
The moon is the ultimate symbol of transformation. She pulls on the waters and she pulls on wombs. When we look at it we are seeing all of the sunrises and sunsets across our world, every beginning and every ending all at once.
A collection of the in-between
between breaths
between thoughts
between notes
between skips
between worlds
Loved it
10/10
A fantastic collection of stories filled with tradition, folklore, double dutch and love.
I'm always looking for moments and these tales had plenty
How we traveled between worlds, the enslaved and the free, the whole and the broken. How we stayed in the light when so much of the world trafficked in darkness.
Down by the river, where the water is brown-black and slippery, where the cobblestones whisper with the fallen trees, the morning belongs to the open sky. The morning belongs to all of us. I know this view. You look down and everything looks possible, like the whole world is a floating barge, and all yours dreams is just drifting on a bend in the river.
But that day Madame turned them blind mole eyes toward me. I lowered my own, thinking nothing good can come when slavery see free.
"A lot of blues and jazz got plenty of tritones, this space between notes that just don't sound right. And of course, wouldn't have no blues without that blue note. Church folk used to call it the Devil's music. It's what gives the music that restless, rambling along feeling. What made it dangerous."
They like to laugh loud, open-mouthed, the kind of laughter where it's all tongue and teeth. I don't judge no more, just witness. I know now it's a kind of silent, coded language, one you won't know how to speak unless you know what it feels like to want and need to be seen.
As a child, like many girls, I used to dance in the middle of my room, until one of my sisters would walk in. Then I would stop for a moment and giggle, then begin the dance again as if no one was there. As I danced alone, I was the brightest star, the only star in my imagination.
People think because they forget their dreams, that they are gone. They are not. The body holds them, the way rich soil holds water. Dreams are hidden somewhere deep in the bones, and flesh and skin.
The moon is the ultimate symbol of transformation. She pulls on the waters and she pulls on wombs. When we look at it we are seeing all of the sunrises and sunsets across our world, every beginning and every ending all at once.
A collection of the in-between
between breaths
between thoughts
between notes
between skips
between worlds
Loved it
10/10
disasterwarlock's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
rorikae's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
'Nine Bar Blues' by Sheree Renee Thomas is a superb collection of stories that weave together around the core theme of music. Though they all incorporate music in some way or another, these stories are varied as they wind in and out of different settings, time periods, and genres. These stories are also deeply entwined with the spiritual world and those that live just beyond our own. Thomas has a way of writing and stitching sentences together that makes the stories flow like music, often with moments or paragraphs that stand out from the rest because of the emotions they evoke.
A few of my favorite pieces in the collection include 'Thirteen Year Long Song," which details one man's experience of his town being overtaken by a local factory, "River Clap Your Hands," where a mermaid turned human deals with the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina, and 'Teddy Bump," where four girls that have gone missing fight back against the woman who has them trapped.
I can't wait to see what Thomas writes next and I hope that more people will pick up her work because her talent deserves to be enjoyed by more readers.
A few of my favorite pieces in the collection include 'Thirteen Year Long Song," which details one man's experience of his town being overtaken by a local factory, "River Clap Your Hands," where a mermaid turned human deals with the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina, and 'Teddy Bump," where four girls that have gone missing fight back against the woman who has them trapped.
I can't wait to see what Thomas writes next and I hope that more people will pick up her work because her talent deserves to be enjoyed by more readers.
memphisholli's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0